A 30 July satellite image showed lava flows extending over 5 km NNW of Nyamuragira’s N crater rim and a new flow extending almost 2 km W of the NW crater rim, based on thermal anomalies. Weather clouds obscured parts of the NNW flow, possibly including the furthest extent of the flow. A thermally anomalous area about 800 m E-W and more than 1.1 km N-S was centered over the vent area in the crater.

Geological Summary. Africa's most active volcano, Nyamulagira (also known as Nyamuragira), is a massive high-potassium basaltic shield about 25 km N of Lake Kivu and 13 km NNW of the steep-sided Nyiragongo volcano. The summit is truncated by a small 2 x 2.3 km caldera that has walls up to about 100 m high. Documented eruptions have occurred within the summit caldera, as well as from the numerous flank fissures and cinder cones. A lava lake in the summit crater, active since at least 1921, drained in 1938, at the time of a major flank eruption. Recent lava flows extend down the flanks more than 30 km from the summit as far as Lake Kivu; extensive lava flows from this volcano have covered 1,500 km2 of the western branch of the East African Rift.

Source: Copernicus